Respectable Quotes - Page 2

• Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art.

  John Updike

  Change, Art, Reflection

  John Updike (1991). “Odd Jobs: Essays and Criticism”, Alfred A. Knopf

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out.

  David Foster

  Art, Real, Bullshit

  "David Foster Wallace's Legendary Graduation Speech Is Now An Awesome Short Film". "This Is Water" Speech at Kenyon College, www.businessinsider.com. 2005.

  38 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Life, Death, Respect

  Albert Schweitzer (1984). “The Words of Albert Schweitzer”

  151 Copy quote

  Show source

• No excuses ever, for anyone; that is my principle at the outset. I deny the good intention, the respectable mistake, the indiscretion, the extenuating circumstance. With me there is no giving of absolution or blessing.

  Albert Camus

  Mistake, Blessing, Giving

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Fall”, p.131, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why, there's ahrdly enough of me left to make one respectable person!

  Lewis Carroll

  Two, People, Use

  Lewis Carroll (1972). “Alice in Wonderland”, p.9, Jeff Koo

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever of that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart.

  Jane Austen

  Heart, Men, Honour You

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.97

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• We had enough years in front of us to be serious and grown-up and respectable. Why rush it? But on the other hand we always complained when teachers and other adults treated us as kids. In fact there was nothing that annoyed me more. So it was a frustrating situation. What we needed was a two-sided badge that said 'Mature' on one side and 'Childish' on the other. Then at any moment we could turn it to whatever side we felt like being and the adults could treat us accordingly.

  John Marsden

  Teacher, Kids, Hands

  John Marsden (1999). “Darkness Be My Friend”, p.69, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Just being alive is such a gift, but nobody ever told you to be thankful to existence. On the contrary, everyone was grumpy, complaining. Naturally, if everything surrounding your life from the very beginning goes on pointing out to you that you are not what you should be, goes on giving you great ideals that you have to follow and you have to become, your isness is never praised. What is praised is your future - if you can become someone respectable, powerful, rich, intellectual, in some way famous, not just a nobody.

  Rajneesh

  Spiritual, Powerful, Giving

  6 Copy quote

• All Asian parents are into your children having a respectable, decent stable job. Acting was unimaginable to my parents.

  Joan Chen

  Jobs, Children, Parent

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• His mother?" Gracie couldn't believe it. Suzy Denton looked much too young to be his mother. And much too respectable. "But you're not a-" She cut herself off in mid-sentence as she realized what she'd almost let slip. Suzy's wedding ring clicked against the steering wheel as she gave it a hard smack. "I'm going to kill him! He's been telling that hooker story again, hasn't he?

  Susan Elizabeth Phillips

  Mother, Believe, Cutting

  4 Copy quote

• I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. ... All that interests in any character [is this]: has he (or she) the money to marry with? ... Suicide is more respectable.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Suicide, Character, Loss

  "Emerson: Selected Journals 1841 - 1877" by Lawrence Rosenwald (p. 768), 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You must not let yourself become too respectable. Keep yourself a little wild. What is life for, if not for the living of it?

  Cynthia Voigt

  Littles, What Is Life, Ifs

  5 Copy quote

• People will think you're courting me.' 'Nonsense, everyone knows I don't court respectable women.

  Julia Quinn

  Thinking, People, Nonsense

  5 Copy quote

• Being a gossip reporter just isn't a respectable job. It'll chew you up and spit you out.

  Kim Cattrall

  Jobs, Gossip, Spit

  5 Copy quote

• Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.

  Will Durant

  Hatred, Vices, May

  8 Copy quote

• Playing the good guy is tough because you know as well as I do, in real life, you have to watch your P's and Q's and conduct yourself in a respectable manner if you expect to have friends.

  R. Lee Ermey

  Real, Guy, Watches

  "'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel' set visit: Q&A with R. Lee Ermey". Group interview, www.horror.com. November 21, 2005.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The short story is still like the novel's wayward younger brother, we know that it's not respectable - but I think that can also add to the glory of it.

  Neil Gaiman

  Brother, Thinking, Add

  7 Copy quote

• Falsifiability for a theory is great, but a theory can still be respectable even if it is not falsifiable, as long as it is verifiable.

  Brian Greene

  Long, Theory, Stills

  4 Copy quote

• I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation.

  Tom Stoppard

  Writing, Play, Way

  Tom Stoppard, Paul Delaney (1994). “Tom Stoppard in Conversation”, p.31, University of Michigan Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. S. H." It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through the dim, fog-draped streets.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Nice, Dark, Fog

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “The Complete Sherlock Holmes”, p.967, Race Point Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I mean in the South African case, many of those who were part of death squads would have been respectable members of their white community, people who went to church on Sunday, every Sunday.

  Desmond Tutu

  Mean, Sunday, Squad

  Interview with Nick Stadlen, www.theguardian.com. September 26, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

  Voltaire

  Character, Men, Reputation

  8 Copy quote

• Sometimes I want to clean up my desk and go out and say, respect me, I'm a respectable grown-up, and other times I just want to jump into a paper bag and shake and bake myself to death.

  Wendy Wasserstein

  Respect, Bags, Paper

  Wendy Wasserstein (1978). “Uncommon Women and Others”, p.29, Dramatists Play Service Inc

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster. This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Men, Space, Wife

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1960). “Laughter in the Dark”, p.7, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.

  Moliere

  People, Laughing, Strange

  8 Copy quote